Adam Taurus - The Man Doomed To Repeat
by FeugoFox42
Summary: What is the point of doing everything you can to be better than him if it's only going to come back and bite you? Adam realised this, and so he ran with it. This is what he told her. Adam-centric One-Shot.


_Cover Image: www **dot** zerochan **dot** net / 1460021 (no spaces). All credit to the original artist_

* * *

"I was not always like this. You knew that, my love." Adam Taurus moved with purpose now, he had won. All the humans that had caused him trouble before were now dead, and all that was really left was the one woman in front of him, lying on the floor in defeat.

"Back when I was but a boy, my Father was never really a role model of mine. The man did 'his best' to make things happy at home, but often the cracks grew and grew until one day, they shattered and his true self was shown. A vicious man with a cruel streak a mile wide, wanting nothing more than to see those around him hurting. I was a victim of this madness that he had become, no longer a man but an emotion in physical form.

Anger.

He was anger incarnate whenever he got mad, and the entire neighbourhood knew to run for the hills if they heard Rojo Taurus starting to roar.

I was only a boy, my love. A boy who looked to his Father in desperate times to plead for his aid. He was a figure that I thought I could be proud of saying, "this person here is my Father". How wrong I was.

When he was taken away from us, I thought that I was finally free from him. No. That was never going to be the case, not until Remnant itself cracks like the moon and lays waste to all who reside upon it.

When he was taken, I started anew; you know this much, for you were part of it..."

"I'd like to forget it." Wilt unsheathed suddenly and slashed another cut across the defeated Cat Faunus' face, bringing a scream of pain from her as she fell back down to the floor.

"This is _not_ the time for you to be talking, my love. You will listen now, you may get the chance to talk later. In a sense," he looked past her shoulder to a spot in the darkness, sheathing his glowing red blade, "you are lucky." It pained her to do so knowing what lay in wait there, but she looked nonetheless. Blake stared into the darkness, something that didn't faze her due to her life spent in it, but also her Faunus heritage allowing her to see in the dark, and regretted her decision immediately. She spotted her friends, her teammates, dead.

Yang was the first to go, because Adam knew how much the blonde meant to her. She was her partner, the one to truly bring her out of her shell, the one who practically sacrificed herself and her right arm to protect her. And in Adam's eyes, her death was unceremoniously quick and painless. For her at least.

Weiss and Neo were next. Blake never expected such a team up, but desperate times called for desperate measures. The mute was found by JNR on one of their scouts around Mistral with Yang. She looked terrible, and Yang - having previously wanted to bet her into a pulp the next time she saw her - took pity on her, having been in that situation herself, and essentially took her in. Through a combination of charades and written/typed word, they found out that Torchwick was the only one who ever looked out for her, and without him she was lost, so she came to Mistral and had been living rough ever since the Fall of Beacon. They didn't see eye to eye, but she and the newly reformed Team RWBY had common enemies.

Sadly, someone who could beat Yang so easily like Adam easily overpowered Weiss, cutting her throat and leaving her for dead. Neo had never really felt anger at someone else's pain and misfortune save Roman, but seeing the ex-Heiress now without the ability to speak brought a lot of repressed memories back to the fold and she rushed in blindly at the Bull Faunus. Much like Yang back in Beacon, that blind rush only served in getting her arm removed, falling next to the blonde she was hoping for a rematch from. Wilt found a comfortable spot between Neo's ribs, killing her.

That left Ruby and Blake. The younger girl saw that every shot he let hit his sword only powered him up more, so they only had close range to truly rely on. Ruby's speed kept Adam on his toes, she even managed to land a few hits on him. But in the end, he had been doing this longer, and he knew from intel gathered on her that without her precious scythe, Ruby Rose was just a silver eyed little girl. So, he feigned being hit, lulling her into thinking he was weak, then when she rushed for a final blow he shattered Crescent Rose with a single powerful strike, destroying a couple of tendons in her arms as well, rendering them useless. She tried running, but Blush took care of her legs. She could barely move at all, and Blake tried to help her.

" _So, you wish to die by your friends? So be it._ " Blake would never forget the fact that Ruby somehow managed to spring herself up and take the bullet for her, her silver eyes dulling as her life faded, ending on a cold, gunmetal grey as she slumped onto the Cat, blood spilling everywhere.

"As I was saying," Adam continued ignoring the fact that Blake was now bawling her eyes out over the sight of her dead friends' corpses again, "I changed. Everything that he was, I strove to be different. I was kind, caring, always looking out for others; do you remember that dear?" She said nothing, for the tears were flowing too much. Not wishing to be ignored, Adam cross the gap in a blur and gripped her by the throat, cutting the cries off. "I said, do you remember?" She nodded, her face turning blue. "Good." He released the grip and continued monologuing.

"I thought I had done it. I had made friends and I was a different person. Anyone who was unfamiliar with my surname would never have been able to put me and my Father in the same category of people anymore. And you, my dear, helped me so much. I remember the way you used to look at me, that look of longing, of safety with me. I felt amazing to have this trust from someone.

But then the dream was shattered. Someone mentioned to me something that changed me again for the better in my eyes; at least, looking _back_ it's for the better. I can never forget those words:

 _I know you lied about it. You are very manipulative._

And with a single word everything crashed down on me. Manipulative; the very thing my Father was always described as.

I was furious, how could I not be? I did whatever I could to be everything he wasn't and yet it all came full circle in the end. I would have tried again, learnt what I was doing and stopping it but do you know what, Blake? I didn't. If I am destined to repeat the same cycle as my Father then why shy against it? And that is what I did.

I used contacts to find out what sort of person my Father was behind closed doors. Oh, the things I discovered my dear. He sent so many of our kind to their deaths because he knew that their destruction at the hands of humans would fan the flames of war. He was cold, manipulative and single-minded. He knew what he wanted and he would not stop until he had reached his goal. And I continued the tradition.

Those 'peaceful' protests we attended? I had always envisioned them turning violent before we had even started spraying our signs. There were assassination attempts given to those who wanted them by me even before your Father stepped down as Chief of the weak White Fang and the High Council discovered of their existence in the order. And you my dear were just another part to the puzzle. Having someone so loyal to me, who would bend over backwards to my will, my every word twisting you around me finger..."

"You were sick Adam," she managed as her tears subsided briefly, "I see that now! I should have seen it then."

"I agree, it _is_ such a pity we cannot turn back time. But equally, who should I need to?" He stood proudly, extending his arms out to gesture at the area around the pair of them. "This? This is my territory now. The White Fang are entirely under my control now. The Faunus uprising in the Dust Mines was all my doing, I thought you would be happy with what I had done for you."

"You did that for me?" she replied in equal parts surprise and horror. "You killed hundreds of innocent people over tens of Dust Mines across Remnant to free our own? Why?"

"Not hundreds my love," Blake froze, she knew what was coming next, " _thousands._ And I did it because it is what you wanted."

"I wanted equality the _right_ way. Through hard work and diplomacy, not force and riots. Weiss and I were working together to see what methods we could find of doing things fairly an-" A rough slap from Adam cut her off, bringing another cry of pain.

"Any way that involves the Schnee family and Faunus is _never_ the right way. Those that side with them, like you, are clearly corrupted mentally and needed to be destroyed." The Cat's throat suddenly went completely dry. She knew what he was on about. She'd been working with Weiss since after their first real meeting with Torchwick at the docks, she'd been with a Schnee practically for the entirety of her first two semesters back at Beacon, and then with her again these past three weeks. Her death was inevitable now. "But you are a special case Blake." Amber eyes glared through the mask at him through her own tears.

"You. Are. Mine."

"Never! Not again! I ran from your abuse once, I will do it again!"

"Oh," he sounded thoroughly unimpressed at the seemingly hollow threat, "and where would you go?" His words spoke the sad truth, but he didn't stop there. "You cannot run to Beacon again, for it is long gone. Your friends are all dead, so you can't seek refuge with them-" she was fed up of him bad mouthing her friends, even if they had already passed from this world, so on pure instinct she jumped at him to defend their memories. Adam had barely a scratch on him whilst Blake was essentially running on fumes, so to avoid her feeble 'attack' (if that's what he would even stretch to call it) he merely sidestepped out of her way, slashing once on her back. "Your only freedom now is with me."

"Freedom?" she winced, fighting through the pain, "this is your idea of freedom? Have you seen what you have become, why would I ever return to that when I have a family to look after me."

"Your _dead_ family, my love. Oh wait, I forgot about Ghira and Kali. I wonder how they are doing?"

"They will be as excited as am right now, which is not at all; I do not care for you at all, and neither will they once they find out what you did." Adam snarled and readied Wilt.

"Well, I guess you cannot win them all. Goodbye then, my love." As the sword fell, a shiny snow-white glyph appeared in the space between Adam and Blake. They looked over to see Weiss creating the glyph, protecting her Faunus teammate from Adam's wrath. But the glyph took a lot out of her, with her steadily shortening breath and increased pain. "Relax my little ice queen, it will be alright," he assured as he walked towards her, Blake trying desperately to tell her to run, "you shall be with your teammates soon enough." He stuck the point in Weiss neck, digging into the skin slightly.

"Weiss, no!" cried Blake, but it was all fruitless. Weiss held up her hand to stop her from coming any closer. Ice blue eyes looked happy for a brief moment before the sharp bit of red metal on one side of the neck appeared on the other as well.

As he retracted the sword from Weiss' neck, the sound churning Blake's stomach, he looked back at her and smirked victoriously. "You have no one else Blake. No- _where_ else. Give up."

"No," she grimaced, "I'm not giving up. If I die, then I do so by my friends."

"I will not deny you that." She hobbled over to where Yang and Neo lay, and where Ruby had been dragged to. Weiss was nearby, so Blake brought her in as well. Team RWBY, as well as Neo, lay there as a group once more. Adam just stood there watching the whole thing, knowing that she couldn't attack him again if she tried; Gambol Shroud had been thrown so far away that she wouldn't have the time to reach it, even if she still had enough Aura for her semblance to give her a boost or two.

"Who are you Adam? Who do you think you are now? Tell me that one this before you kill me. I deserve that, don't I?" He pondered briefly, then pulled out Blush and aimed at Blake's head.

"I am Adam Taurus, and I am the man who is doomed to repeat his family's legacy." And as the pull on the trigger tightened, Blake let darkness consume her as she shut her eyes one last time.

* * *

Hey guys.

So yeah, that was dark as shit I realised, but I did need to get that off my chest.

Much like Adam, I was called out on something (using the exact phrasing I used here), although mine was from years ago rather than very recently in his case. I felt the same way too; I'd been avoiding and distancing myself from my Dad and his actions, but being told that meant that everything I had done to get where I am now could have been me manipulating people again. It put me in a dark place, but it was truthful. _Unlike_ Adam, however, I know to move on from the mistakes, that even though I was like him, that does not mean I still am like him.

Also, this is one of the few times I think you will ever see me writing something very poetic from Adam's POV.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated

Until next time, **  
FeugoFox42 :)**


End file.
